


Unexpected

by marcailroy



Category: Uglies Series - Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Epilogue, F/M, Family, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 12:38:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11623710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcailroy/pseuds/marcailroy
Summary: Tally discovers something with Maddy's help. How will she react to the news and how will she tell David? Set after Extras.





	Unexpected

Sometimes, you're not ready for all the things life throws at you.

 

"No," Tally's voice was final.

"Tally, you can't just say-" Maddy started.

"No, no, no. No," the young woman insisted. "Me? How is this a good thing? How is it even possible? You said..." Tally continued her rant, trying hard to stay icy when it was clearly very, very hard. 

Maddy walked out of the room, on a mission to find some tea to calm Tally. The house was nice and quiet and not at all near Diego.The country house was smaller than the one Maddy had in the Smoke, but only one person lived there now, aside from the occasional visit from David and Tally, so she didn't need much space. Having a home in such a convenient location turned out to be a blessing, though Maddy wished she never would have had to have found out.

David had taken a vow to never get a surge - he grew up in the wild where nature took its course on life; however, on the way home from a trip to Alaska David had become deathly ill and had to be treated at the hospital in Diego. Tally had beaten herself up over it, not knowing if it was something she had done or she could have prevented. So Maddy, in a state of panic, told the doctors to give David a surge. Just a simple one to help his immune system, but a surge nonetheless. There was nothing worse for a mother, Maddy had told Tally, than not being able to take care of her child. Maddy just wanted to take David with all the equipment attached to him back to her house and to make him better. However, for the first week after David learned what his mother had done he didn't speak a word to her, even though she visited him regularly. It was only when he realized why she did it that he understood just what it meant to Maddy.

Maddy had a surge that would allow her to live well into her 100s. Tally would live to be 150 at the youngest. David would live to be 90-years-old if he was lucky. With the surge he would live just as long as Tally. Maddy had already buried her husband, she didn't want to bury her son too.

"Whether I said it would be a possibility with all the operations you've had or not is irrelevant at this moment," Maddy sighed entering the room, her impatience bubbling to the surface. It wasn't Tally she disliked, she had actually grown to love the girl, it was the fact that no matter how much of her brain Tally rewired it was clear that the process wasn't finished. Her stubborn, Special mind seemed to be the hardest thing to change.

"No! I have already accepted the fact that I can't-" Tally said, stopping herself as the idea began to sink-in. It all seemed impossible. The sickness, the cravings, the dizziness, it had worried Tally and David, but this never crossed their minds as a possibility. Maddy had said that it would be almost impossible.

"I know, now you and David have to accept this new part of your lives. It is David's, isn't it?" Maddy didn't really know what made her ask that question, but it was out before she could stop it.

"Of course it's David's!" Tally growled, her temper getting the best of her. Then she remembered what was growing inside her: A baby. A baby for whom she was responsible. A child who would hate his or her mother, a mother with sharp, cruel features who instilled fear in everyone except those like her or David. A mother who couldn't even control her temper when it was directed at someone like Maddy, who had done so much for her and was so kind.

It was weird, when Tally began to rewire her brain with David's help her attraction to the memory of Zane faded. She had always thought she had loved Zane more than David, that David was just someone she had a relationship with for a while and Zane was her true love. At first, she thought she was just moving on. Then she met Aya and Frizz. They seemed so in love with each other. When she looked at them, she didn't think of her and Zane, but her and David. David had always looked at her with a sense of admiration, even when she frightened him. He said that he always tried to remind himself of the Tally he knew, the one he knew was still there.

Zane, Zane had only ever known her as a Pretty. Even when she had rewired herself she was still a Pretty. She still had big eyes, big lips, a face that easily attracted members of the opposite sex. Zane had been the same way. David didn't even need to try to be beautiful to her, he just was. David always was everything without any surge. So when Tally began to slowly go back to Ugly Tally, at least on the inside, it was like she was falling for David all over again.

And the icy thing was he still loved her.

Now, she and David had created something - something bigger than the New Smokes, the New Systems - and she was going to ruin it because she was Special. Tally really hated who she had become sometimes, all the mistakes she had made to get to where she was today: Frightening to look at and fearsome to behold. Maddy could see Tally was fighting internally, as Tally often did, and knew that despite how amazing Tally is, letting her alone with herself never ended well.

"Tally, I know you didn't think this was possible and I know I-"

"It's not that. It's... I'm not _made_ to be a mother. I don't have a nurturing side to me. I'm made to find weaknesses and you think a littlie, a little littlie, will be a good thing to add that?"

"Tally-" Maddy started, but didn't finish.

"Mom, Tally?" David's voice entered the house followed by the sound of the closing door. Tally, suddenly realizing she was standing, sat down in the farthest corner of the room. Maddy just stared at her before sitting down in her own chair and pouring three cups of tea.

"In here, David," Maddy called. David came walking in, clearly exhausted from his trip into Diego. Since Tally and David had become the unofficial New Special Circumstances they had been requested to attend certain meetings in the cities. David had gone today without Tally - he didn't think it was wise for her to go into a city with her feeling so ill - and although he had gotten used to urban places, he was much more comfortable in the wild and it showed on his face. Today must have been particularly bad.

"How did the meeting go?" Tally questioned halfheartedly.

"We can talk about that later," David said, waving off the question. "How are you feeling? Better?"

"Worse," Tally mumbled.

"Worse?" David asked, looking at his mother. "I thought you were going to help her feel better?"

"She will when she takes the right medication," Maddy said, handing her son 2 cups of tea, each with a single sugar cube.

"Then you'll feel better?" David asked still confused by Tally's earlier comment.

"In, what is it? Nine months?" Tally asked to no one in particular.

"About eight now," Maddy corrected.

"Wait, nine months?" David asked.

"Eight," two voices corrected.

"Fine, mom, eight months. Tally, what are you talking about?" David questioned turning towards Tally, the cups of tea forgotten for the moment.

Tally couldn't look at David. She didn't want to look at anyone, really, not even the picture of Az on the wall for fear of the judgement in his still eyes. When she braved a look she immediately looked away. David looked so concerned for her and she was a monster with part of him, he who is so good and kind, inside of her. A child growing that would wonder why his or her father was so wonderful and mother so awful. A child who would fear for her outbursts, for moments when she couldn't control the rage that she had inside because her brain had been melted and molded so many times. And for the first time since the mind rain, Tally was ashamed of her scars. Each scar told a story that she didn't want her child to know, stories she didn't want someone so innocent to know.

"I- We- I-" Tally tried, she really tried to tell David. David set down both of the cups of tea and went over to Tally, who was once again standing, and put his hands on her shoulders. Tally took one of his hands, running her fingers over the calluses from all the years of hard work in the Smoke, in the New Smoke, and with her on their adventures. His rough hands which were also soft, giving comfort to her when nothing else could. His hands which would undoubtedly carefully hold their child, hands that would be there to catch the child when it fell, hands that would wash it.

"What is it, Tally?" David was trying to have her look him in the eyes. His concern had grown incredibly and he had already been terrified. Tally didn't get sick, her immune system was too strong, too special. So whatever this was had to be serious, almost deadly, but he couldn't think that. He couldn't stand to live if he lost Tally, she meant everything to him.

Maddy watched her son and the mother of his child, her grandchild, as they silently talked. She didn't know how any of this was going to work. David and Tally had no permanent home because they camped in the wild wherever they were needed. That was no place to raise a child, in the changing weather with nothing except the ruins for protection. For a moment she wondered how they could have been so careless, but then again they had both accepted the fact that Tally would be unable to have a child and if, one day, they were to have one they could have do so by a surrogate, the way city people tended to have their children. Worrying about her getting pregnant wasn't something they thought they had to add to the long list of things to fret over.

"Just tell him Tally," Maddy whispered. She was so silent that she was sure David hadn't heard her, but she knew Tally did.

"David," Tally began. "David, I'm pregnant."

And with that, Tally began to cry for the first time since she had become a Special. David knew why she was crying, but that couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face as he hugged Tally. He knew that although Tally doubted herself, Tally would make a wonderful mother because she cared. He rubbed circles on her back as he sat the two of them down on the couch, pressing a soft kiss on top of her head. Yes, Tally would make a wonderful mother.


End file.
